Editor's Note: As Virginia Baptists move toward their annual meeting, Nov. 9-10 in Virginia Beach, and face a national election Nov. 7, it seemed to be a good time to remind us of who we are. A classic statement of that identity was made in 1923 by then Religious Herald editor Robert H. Pitt, who addressed that year's annual meeting of the Baptist General Association of Virginia.
There is a Virginia Baptist temper. Its characteristic qualities are by no means confined to Virginia, but there is some ground for believing that they are found in our denominational history in some larger measure, and, it may be, are maintained with greater steadfastness than elsewhere. Whether this be true or not, there is a Virginia Baptist temper. We may not be able to define it with complete accuracy, but we recognize it and rejoice in it. Let us see if, in a brief and simple way, we can interpret it, in the light of our long and eventful history.
It is a tradition of courage; not a swaggering, blustering, noisy courage, but a quiet, faithful, fearless advocacy and defense of truths and principles which they have held to be precious. In those earlier heroic days, when our brethren suffered as well as labored, there is no whining, no complaining. Their protests against injustice and their pleas for liberty are always sober, clear, restrained. One fails to find anywhere in the chronicles that are available of that period any intimation that the men who languished in jails or suffered other privations and punishment ever sought to capitalize them. Apparently when they were released they went on their way praising God and preaching the gospel of good will. It is possible, of course, it is indeed probable, that there have been some cowards among the great number of Baptist folk and possibly some among their leaders, but the great body of our people and their leaders, with scarcely an exception, if any, have feared God, and have feared no one else.
Virginia Baptists have from the beginning cherished and cultivated a denominational consciousness. Theirs is a tradition of denominational self-respect. On very few occasions in this long and chequered history has there been any show of truculence. Even when our folk had to fight for elemental rights they went about it in an orderly and self-respecting way.
They have been glad to enjoy the love, confidence and respect of the whole community, particularly of Christians of other names and communions. They have claimed no superiority in rank over their brethren, but have never been willing to acknowledge any inferiority on their own part. In maintaining this tradition of denominational self-esteem, they have not found it necessary to express to others or to cultivate in their own hearts any hateful or proscriptive sentiments. They have not allowed their denominational self-esteem to run into arrogance, or to degenerate into intolerance.
A certain delicate and thoughtful Christian courtesy has marked the attitude of our brotherhood throughout its long and eventful history. This has been true of their relations to one another. Our strong men, and there have been many of them, have often differed, sometimes seriously and sometimes sharply, about matters of doctrine and duty. Seldom, if ever, have they allowed their zealous support of their own views to lead them into acrimonious debate or to forget that the first law of Christ and the queen of all Christian graces is love. It had been found possible to maintain firmly, to promote steadily and to press earnestly the great truths of evangelical religion without sacrificing Christlikeness of temper.
A considerate temper has in the main characterized our Virginia brotherhood. Something else is had in mind here besides mere courteous behavior to one another and to all others. The vexed question of liberty of belief has been solved in Virginia in a striking way. It may be doubted if in any other similar area where as many of our people live there can be found, either in the past history or in the present situation, less disturbance, fewer divisions, either with respect to matters of faith or of practice. The atmosphere of this State, so far as our brotherhood is concerned, has never been favorable to the development of doctrinal martinets, self-appointed and self-commissioned satraps, who demand that we shall all pass in review before them, and who issue their crisp orders that one shall elevate his chin and another pull down his vest. Even in our own day of doctrinal turmoil our people are thoughtful and considerate, claiming for themselves a reasonable personal freedom and freely granting to others what they ask for themselves. This is true also, and has been true throughout our Virginia Baptist history, as to intradenominational differences. We cannot forbear to express the earnest hope that this quality, with its implications of the earnest hope that this quality, with its implications of justice, liberty, forbearance, kindness may never disappear.
A word may be fitly added concerning the cooperative disposition of our people. In their earliest history their individualism was stressed. They were jealous of their personal rights and liberties and looked with interrogation upon any common organization as a possible encroachment on their personal privileges. Yet the Christian instinct for fellowship and the recognition of common tasks were buoyant and insubmergible. At length they found a way, and having found it, they have walked in it. Never in all their history has this admirable spirit of cooperation been more manifest than it is at this good hour.
The Virginia Baptist tradition is one of constancy. A certain sobriety and steadiness, a certain loyalty to their brethren and to their own ideals, may surely be found in the past history and the present attitude of the Baptists of our State. Our people have not always been swift, but usually they have been sure. They are a dependable folk. They may sometimes seem to be a little slow in taking hold, but they are quite tenacious in holding on. They care little for the mere show of success; they are tremendously interested in the substance of success.
Only if the old has proven itself to be of permanent value we feel bound to keep it. Doctrinal fads and novelties, radical and revolutionary changes of method have little vogue among seasoned and experienced Virginia Baptists. They remember that the ancient word which bids us stand in the old paths also bids us walk therein. We think that the whole history of our people will show that in a rare and notable fashion they have blended conservatism and progress. They have been careful to lay the foundations deep and strong, but they have reared the superstructure, too. They will never rest until all their common enterprises are made secure, until they are equipped after the most approved fashion to do the great work to which they are devoted.
Courage, denominational consciousness, courtesy, considerateness, cooperation, constancy, conservatism. Something is yet lacking. No body of people, certainly no Christian brotherhood, can command our undivided respect if it has not somewhere in its spirit and polity the outward and upward look. It is pleasant to report that the student of our Virginia Baptist history and life finds running through it a masterful purpose, a temper of conquest. All the record of the long, varied, troubled, joyful years; all that our brethren have achieved under the blessing of God, furnish the point of vantage from which, if we are not unworthy of our sires, we shall go on to larger things, to nobler tasks and more enduring achievements. We can never rest, we must never think of resting until the whole round world is brought to the feet of Him who loves the world and is able to save it.